The other day I did a really fun photo shoot with my amazingly talented friend, Mischa. For these photos we wanted to portray the moody, stylized drama of classic Film Noir, while still keeping a slightly modern edge. I love how he played with shadows and lighting, and LOVE how these look in Black & White....so nostalgic of old-hollywood! I had a blast doing this, Thanks Mischa!!

Hey There Everyone!
I would like to introduce you to Ashley Bryant. She is a super talented graphic designer who recently created a branding guide for the website www.UrbanOG.com (which I just so happen to LoVe, and I shop at a little too often :p ) and she used MY pictures for her presentation!!!

What do you do when someone says "No" to something that you really want? How do you react?
Today I started thinking about this... as an actor and singer, rejection is so....typical. expected. par for the course. We performers deal with hearing "No" more often then not. Like, seriously, ALL the time! Sometimes it really hurts.... sometimes we just end up having a soy latte with our Besty at Starbucks and never think about it again.... but the fact is, we get said "No" to SO often that now I'm starting to wonder... is that weird? Are there other people out there who get rejected this much? Are there people out there that DON'T have to hear "No" 100 times before they hear "Yes"?

I'm guessing you can learn a lot about a person by how they react to hearing "No" (although I hope no one is studying me, because I admit I've had at least a few seriously questionable reactions myself!! ) Do you get crushed? Do you feel defeated? Do you feel enraged? Defiant? Does it empower you to keep going? To pick yourself back up? To do better? To be the BEST?

As I was thinking about all of this... I saw this quote posted on Facebook:

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

It's weird how excited I still get for the summer time. I mean, it's not like the 'ol days when I had summer vacation from school... and I live in LA for cryn' out loud! The land of eternal sunshine!! (sort of, there was that one day when it snowed in Burbank this "winter"....) But none the less, I can't wait for sunning by the pool, firing up the grill for backyard BBQs, frosty drinks with my girls on an outdoor patio somewhere, hiking, swimming, and of course, cute sundresses and sandals...ah summmmmerrrrrrrrrr........

on this night I went to check out my good friend from waaaaay back, Rock WIlk...He was in LA for one night to do his one man show called "Broke Wide Open". It was friggin fanstastic. Check out his website and check him out. That's an order.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of Avenue Q at the Pantages Theater. I had NEVER seen the show (can you believe it!?) so I was excited to have the chance to finally see it!

The show itself is hilarious... there really is something funny about puppets swearing at each other and singing songs like "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"... the show is brilliant, the cast was fantastic, and the entire experience at the Pantages was great ... If you get the chance you, really should try to catch it!

I was ahead of my time. I was rocking the name "Ava" waaaay before famous folks like Heather Locklear and Reese Witherspoon named their daughters Ava (and the rest of america for that matter)

I also was a Hello Kitty enthusiast long before she became the pop culture icon that she is today, with her own, almost entirely Hello Kitty dedicated SANRIO shop on 42nd street and such... My Hello Kitty doll was my best friend, my confidante, and my first fashion muse! I admit it was a challenge to make clothes for such a little tiny body and great big head, but I made sure she was the best dressed kitty in town...

It seems Hello really does inspire, she is also the muse for these artists...